Trita Parsi

Trita Parsi is founder and president of the National Iranian American Council and an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign politics, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He is author of Losing an Enemy - Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy; A Single Roll of the Dice - Obama's Diplomacy with Iran; and Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States.
Articles by this author
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Views Wednesday, September 16, 2020 Is Mike Pompeo Preparing an October Surprise? With less than seven weeks left until the U.S. presidential elections, the faction within the Trump administration aligned with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seems to be preparing the ground for an October Surprise—a confrontation with Iran that will be cast as both defensive and lawful. The first... Read more |
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Views Saturday, October 19, 2019 America’s Syria Debacle Is Not Trump’s Alone Rarely have two sides fought over an issue so ferociously only for both to get it so wrong. First, U.S. President Donald Trump announced almost a year ago that he would be pulling U.S. ground troops out of Syria. He failed to do so. And then, last week, he blessed an invasion into northern Syria by... Read more |
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Views Friday, June 14, 2019 Trump Blames Iran for the Tanker Attacks. But Let's be Skeptical of his Administration's Pro-War Bluster The Trump administration was quick to point fingers at Iran after explosions on two oil tankers from Japan and Norway in the Gulf of Oman . Undoubtedly, Iran is a plausible suspect. It has repeatedly threatened to strangle the flow of Persian Gulf oil from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, May 15, 2019 Trump's Potential War With Iran Is All John Bolton's Doing. But It Might Also Be His Undoing. National security adviser John Bolton has reportedly requested that administration officials draw up plans to send 120,000 U.S. troops to the Middle East to counter Iran, sending shockwaves through Washington. Bolton, a key architect of the disastrous invasion of Iraq , has long gunned for war with... Read more |
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Views Friday, February 15, 2019 Warsaw Summit Was a Failure for Trump—But a Win for Netanyahu With a joint statement that did not even mention Iran, there is little doubt that the Trump administration's anti-Iran Warsaw summit was an abject failure - at least when measured against the objective of creating an anti-Iran alliance. That, however, does not mean that the summit wasn’t useful to... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, December 05, 2018 Trump's International Anti-Iran Coalition Looks Like It's Falling Apart. He Doesn't Have a Back-Up Plan. President Donald Trump set out to pick a fight with Iran from the early days of his administration. But a set of astonishing developments has pulled the rug out from under his feet, and the next three months will determine whether Trump will opt to escalate his provocations or find a face-saving... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, September 25, 2018 The Ahvaz Terror Attack in Iran May Drag the US Into a Larger War Iran has been hit by yet another terrorist attack. At least 29 people were killed in the southwestern city of Ahvaz when gunmen opened fire on a crowd watching a military parade on Iran's equivalent of Memorial Day. But unlike previous terror attacks, this one may spark a much larger regional... Read more |
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Views Sunday, September 23, 2018 The Ahvaz Terror Attack in Iran May Drag the US Into a Larger War Iran has been hit by yet another terrorist attack. At least 29 people were killed in the southwestern city of Ahvaz when gunmen opened fire on a crowd watching a military parade on Iran's equivalent of Memorial Day. But unlike previous terror attacks, this one may spark a much larger regional... Read more |
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Views Monday, August 20, 2018 On Iran, Is It Trump Versus His Own Neocons? Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement of the creation of a new Iran Action Group at the White House–almost exactly on the anniversary of the CIA-led coup against Iran’s elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 no less–was as usual short on substance but heavy on on accusations and... Read more |
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Views Monday, July 30, 2018 Trump's Offer to Meet With Iran's President Rouhani Won't Get Us a Better Deal. We Had Our Chance and Lost It. After withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and threatening Iran with "consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before," President Trump announced on Monday that he wants to meet with President Rouhani without preconditions to craft a new deal. Trump thinks he can... Read more |